


Our Finest Gifts We Bring

by Merixcil



Series: Advent Fics 2018 [9]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batwoman (Comic), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, F/F, Past Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:35:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25226164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merixcil/pseuds/Merixcil
Summary: Kate comes bearing gifts and Renee pretends to hold out on her
Relationships: Kate Kane/Renee Montoya
Series: Advent Fics 2018 [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1824643
Kudos: 1





	Our Finest Gifts We Bring

Three short raps on the front door, and it could be anybody except the hairs on the back of Renee’s neck are already standing on end and Kate is the only person who ever stops by after nine pm who she’s not related to.

“What?” Renee tugs the door open, squaring her shoulders and allowing as little space as possible for anybody to slip past her into the house. 

Kate is dressed in designer tracksuit bottoms and an unfairly fluffy looking jumper. Her hair is stuck up at odd angles and she wreaks of deodorant. Fresh off a shift as Gotham’s most sexually frustrating hero, no doubt. She raises an eyebrow that has been carefully plucked down to size, no matter how much she might like to insist that she doesn’t really care about her appearance out of uniform. “Don’t I even get a hello?”

“Apparently not.” Renee purses her lips. The longer she has to stand upright, the more aware she is that half a bottle of cheap bourbon on an empty stomach was a bad idea, even by her standards. Screw it, Christmas is on the way, she needs to start building up a tolerance if she’s expecting to get suitably smashed on the big day so that she doesn’t have to remember any awkward conversations with her family the morning after. 

The homophobic crap from the wider family she’s more than used to dealing with. Everyone’s got an aunt or two who thinks family gatherings are the perfect time to start turning their nose up at their younger relatives’ ‘lifestyles’. It’s the probing questions from her parents, trying to work out when she’s going to find a nice girl to settle down with, that Renee finds so irksome. There’s only so many times you can pussyfoot around the issue before you have to say ‘never, mom. No nice girl is gonna touch me with a ten foot pole’. 

Case in point: Kate Kane is brave and stubborn and loyal and honourable and honest to God the hottest thing Renee’s ever seen in thirty two years on this planet, but she’s not even in the same neighbourhood as nice. She uses her free time to kick people’s teeth in, she sinks large quantities of her not inconsiderable fortune into surveillance tech, and she’ll cut you out her life, wholesale, before she tells you something that she doesn’t want known. 

Reaching into the soft leather satchel thrown over her shoulder, Kate brings out a bottle of something that Renee fucking wishes she didn’t know was Glenlivet, twelve years old, Scottish import. Motherfucker. 

Like she’s not being treated to the frostiest greeting this side of Superman’s Fortress of Solitude, Kate holds out the bottle. Her grip loose around the neck like she doesn’t give a shit if she drops it. Which she doesn’t. It might be a generous gift coming from someone who’s not one of the five cornerstone families of one of the wealthiest cities in the world. “Merry Christmas.”

“You hate Christmas.” Renee snaps, taking the bottle before Kate can let her grip slip too much. 

Kate smirks, a light lifting of the left corner of her mouth as she only ever does when she thinks she’s won. “I don’t hate Christmas, I just don’t celebrate.” She pauses, letting Renee examine the bottle, trying not to go weak at the knees when she sees which batch it it. Fucking, fucking hell. She’s gotta get better at this alcoholism thing, stop caring about the brand and the date. It’s what gets you drunk that counts. “You know, it’s Hannukah. Like, right now.”

“Happy Hannukah.” Renee snaps. 

“Not yet.” Kate leans up against the door frame, dipping her gaze just slightly before rising to meet Renee’s eyes. Fuck her for that basic bullshit. Fuck her. She only does it because she knows it works. “But it could be.”

Probably. Maybe. It could be. The bottle is heavy in Renee’s hands. Too nice to waste, too nice to drink alone, too nice to dish out to her family. Her dad wouldn’t know good whiskey if it crawled down his throat. 

Fuck Kate Kane. 

Renee nods to the bottle. “You wanna take this for a test drive.”

With an air of infuriating smugness, Kate squeezes through the gap Renee leaves her to muscle into her apartment. She doesn’t pause to kick her shoes off, or ask which way the living room is, Because she knows, they’ve done this song and dance too many times. “I thought you’d never ask.”

“No you didn’t.” Renee kicks the door closed behind her and heads to the kitchen to grab a second glass. 

**Author's Note:**

> This work was originally posted as part of a multi chaptered 'advent fics' fic that I'm trying to split up. If you think you've read it before, you probably have
> 
> Comments on the previous posting of this fic (just ask if you want me to remove yours) include:
> 
> >StoriesbyReese: Great chapter, I love me some Kate and Renee :-D  
> >>Merixcil: THEY'RE SO GOOD!!! I need so much more of them and yet I must starve


End file.
